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I’m not sure it’s ever happened so fast.
I’d have time to whip my hand away. Wouldn’t I?
“Hello,” she says. “This is Mom. Ilsa. Mom – Ilsa, this is Ramsey. My, err, my boss.”
My heart thunders harder when she hesitates. It’s like she doesn’t know what to call me. As I say hello to her mother, I feel her watching me.
I want to study her scent deeper, to learn how she feels, but it’s too overwhelming. The wolfish part rumbles away when I even try to inhale her and let myself go.
So I have to stay distant, relying on human signals, which are always far messier.
“Let’s go inside and get something to drink,” Liam says. “Ramsey, a beer?”
“No,” I say quickly, then Liam winces.
He gives me a look. His scent shivers, more difficult to detect with Ruby’s right there, but I can sense it. I’ve trained enough. I can’t imagine what an untrained wolf would do with a scent like this.
Go insane, kill their lover, get killed by another shifter.
I shake my head at Liam. He’s telling me he’s sorry for offering me a beer. My mind has to be sharp, my defenses raised. There are horror stories about shifters who got blackout drunk and lost control of their abilities.
They don’t last for long.
Normally, I’m fine with alcohol. But with Ruby nearby, I have to be careful.
“Well, I’m having a beer. Ilsa, Ruby?”
“Maybe some tea,” Ilsa says, talking more to Ruby than to Liam.
She clings to her daughter’s arms, reeking with fear. It emanates from her. It spikes when she glances at me and quickly looks back to her daughter. Her scent is perhaps one-fifth as powerful as her daughter’s, but her fear is so strong.
“Some tea,” Ruby says, speaking for her mother.
I look between them, aching for a way to make this better, whatever’s happening here. Clearly, Ilsa has been through a lot. Ruby shouldn’t have to be the only one helping her. She needs room, space, and an older man to help guide her through the world.
With a perfect curvy body, ready to swell with my seed.
And then, when our kids are young, Ruby and I will be in bed one day and...
No, no, no.
I won’t think about what the other wolf did.
Except I have to.
I have to make sure I don’t do the same.
“Sure,” Liam says. “Come on.”
Turning to Ruby, I try to smile. She’s looking at me with her head tilted, almost like she’s trying to scent me. Tosenseme.
Then it hits.
She knows.
She’s guessed that I’m the wolf.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
